Sociolinguistic Analysis on British and American Englishes.pptx

8/11/2019 Sociolinguistic Analysis on British and American Englishes.pptx

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sociolinguistic-analysis-on-british-and-american-englishespptx 1/15

Diego EspinosaSebastian Cardona



Native speakers of English….:

Americans (about 240 million people)

Britain (about 57 million speakers)





The first settlement took place in 1607in Jamestown, Virginia, and this wasfollowed by the development of twelveother colonies along the Atlantic coast.

By the end of the colonial period, at thesame time that the first census wascarried out in 1790, there wereapproximately four million people living

in the American colonies, with 95% fromthe British Isles.



There are three such factors that have led to thedifferences between Am.E. and British English (Br.E.)(For comparative purposes, these differences will bemeasured against the respective recognisedstandard). The first factor is the change that occurred

in British English itself at the beginning of the 17th century. Secondly, this version of English, nowspoken and written in America, acquired a characterof its own, „reflecting the growth and history of theAmerican community‟ (ibid ), and includes

diversification and dialect levelling. Thirdly,interactions between America and Britain, especiallyduring periods of conflict and political turmoil,affected the language of Am.E.





In addition to the early British settlers, there was asteady immigration from European countries. Dutchsettlers founded New Netherlands along the Hudson

River, with New Amsterdam as the chief port in 1614.This colony was then lost to the English settlers, withthe port renamed New York in 1664 (Tottie, op.cit :31)A few years later, French settlers built a community in

South Carolina. Presently, the interior lands wereoccupied by Scots-Irish and Germans (Baugh andCable, op.cit :355). From this huge mix of differingcommunities, cultures and dialects, the populationcomprised peoples from varying social classes too.



The largest single immigrant group, however, was theforced immigration of thousands of Africans, broughtinto America through the Slave Trade, which began in theseventeenth century until its abolition in the nineteenthcentury. Surprisingly, the influence on the language fromthe Africans was relatively small. This was due to thediversity of the tribes involved, and the fact they wereslaves afforded them no respect or value for language or

tradition. Slaves were forced to learn English as a LinguaFranca – a way to communicate with their masters. Thisform of Pidgin English has developed into one of themost characteristic forms of AmE. – that of AfricanAmerican Vernacular English or Black English, with over

25 million speakers in the United States (Tottie,op.cit :352). More recent immigration occurred during themid-twentieth century from Mexico, and other Hispaniccountries.



The main effect of the vast diversificationof the American population, and the

processes by which the languages cameinto contact was that the English spokenby Americans tended to level out. Thiswas observed as early as 1781, by JohnWitherspoon, Scottish President ofPrinceton University, who remarked thatpeople…



“ being much more unsettled, and movingfrequently from place to place, they arenot so liable to local peculiarities either inaccent or phraseology”

(Baugh and Cable, 2002:357)



Significantly, the uniformity of AmE. created aunique version of the English Language. Inaddition to the borrowing from other languages,

new words and syntactic structures were createdand assimilated into the language, fuelled bypatriotism from Americans who felt that Am.E.was far superior to Br.E. Thus, words such as

„underbrush‟ and „backwoods‟ were created toreflect the new environment. Evidence ofsemantic change occurred in words like „creek‟ and „bluff‟ where the meaning in America isdifferent to the meaning in Britain, althougharchaic features are retained from the 17th century, for example, „I guess‟ to mean„understand‟ is retained from Chaucer.



The Declaration of Independence in1776 provided an impetus for thelikes of innovators such aslexicographer Noah Webster tocompile his Spelling Book in 1783 in

which he advocated the use of adifferent spelling system to that ofBrE. This was followed in 1789 withhis Dissertation on the English

Language , and An American Dictionaryof the English Language in 1828.Webster was fiercely patriotic, which isreflected in his quote…



„Our honor requires us to have a system ofour own, in language as well as government‟

(Webster, 1789, quoted in Tottie, 2002:9).Even now, there are only a few varieties ofAm.E. separate dialects. Black English is themost well-known non-standard form of

Am.E, but even these differences „are largelyconfined to superficial, rather low levelprocesses‟ (Labov, 1970:40). (Examples ofgrammatical differences between Standard

Br.E. and Standard Am.E. are attached asAppendix 2).



The third and final factor in Streven‟s research relatesto the period since the Civil War in the mid nineteenthcentury. In this period, which continues to the present

day, Am.E. emerges with equal status and value withthat of Br.E., and in many ways, the earlier influencesare reversed; it is frequently the case that BritishEnglish adopts what are known as „Americanisms‟, coining words and meanings from American English.

Some common examples are, „hustle‟, „ broad‟ – meaning woman of low morals, „junkie‟ „hijack‟, andcountless other expressions related to the increase ineconomic and political relations between the two

states.



Bibliography: Baugh, A. Cable, C. (2002) A History of The

English Language . 5th ed. Oxon: Routledge.

Strevens, P. (1972) British and American English .

London: Collier-Macmillan.

Cybergraphy http://www.academia.edu/4076019/The_History_and_Development_of_Amer

ican_English http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20110028/urn_nbn_fi_uef-

20110028.pdf

http://www.academia.edu/4076019/The_History_and_Development_of_American_English


http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20110028/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20110028.pdf




























Documents

Sociolinguistic Analysis on British and American Englishes.pptx